Word Origin & History

figure early 13c., from O.Fr. figure, from L. figura "a shape, form, figure," from PIE *dheigh- "to form, build" (see dough); originally in English with meaning "numeral," but sense of "form, likeness" is almost as old (mid-13c.). The verb meaning "to picture in the mind" is from c.1600. Related: Figured; figuring. Philosophical and scientific senses are from L. figura being used to translate Gk. skhema. The rhetorical use of figure dates to late 14c.; hence figure of speech (1824).

Example Sentences for figures out

Yes, it figures out at just over four million seven hundred and forty thousand.

You can hear her say the figures out loud and sort of chuckle to herself.

My soul is saddened by the images thus conjured up; the figures out of the past blind my sight.

He plans and figures out what improvements are urgently necessary to make the remote parts of his district more accessible.

Thin he sets back in a chair an' figures out that th' pitchers on th' wall pa-aper ar-re all alike ivry third row.

A refinement of intellect at most only figures out better ways of reaching old and accustomed ends.

But I got the impression there were figures out there—at least dozens of them—and that they moved back away from the light.

It is evident that the author has raised the figures out of the grasp of his own imagination.

And Boy could see that they really did look like the figures out of Noah's Ark.

As in Greece the Etruscans first carved their figures out of wood,36 but what these figures were like we can only imagine.